To understand an American Indian perspective on Thanksgiving, you need some
information and some new viewpoints.

Most school children are taught that Native Americans
helped the Pilgrims and were invited to the first Thanksgiving feast. Young
children's conceptions of Native Americans often develop out of media portrayals
and classroom role playing of the events of the First Thanksgiving. The
conception of Native Americans gained from such early exposure is both
inaccurate and potentially damaging to others.

Therefore, most children do not know the following
facts, which explain why many American Indians today call Thanksgiving a "Day of
Mourning".

Traditional hospitality and generosity have and continue to be constant Tribal
virtues to be practiced at all times.

One of a series of feasts reaching back into the group
memory has been seized upon by the current modern society. The Wampanoag feast,
called Nikkomosach-miawene, or Grand Sachem's Council Feast. It was because of
this feast in 1621 that the Wampanoags had amassed the food to help the Pilgrims
thereby creating a new tradition European tradition known today as "Thanksgiving
Day.

This Wampanog feast is marked by traditional food and
games, telling of stories and legends, sacred ceremonies and councils on the
affairs of the nation. Massasoit came with 90 Wampanog men and brought five
deer, fish, all the food and Wampanog cooks.

Before the Pilgrims arrived Plymouth had been the site of a Pawtuxet village
which was wiped out by a plague (introduced by English explorers looking to grab
a piece of the New World land) five years before the Pilgrims landed These
Native peoples had met Europeans before the Pilgrims arrived. One such European
was Captain Thomas Hunt, who started trading with the Native people in 1614. He
captured 20 Pawtuxcts and seven Naugassets, selling them as slaves in Spain.

Many other European expeditions also lured Native
people onto ships and then imprisoned and enslaved them. These expeditions
carried smallpox, typhus, measles and other European diseases to this continent.
Native people had no immunity and some groups were totally wiped out while
others were severely decimated. An estimated 72,000 to 90,000 people lived in
southern New England before contact with Europeans.

One hundred years later, their numbers were reduced by
80%. It was the English Captain Thomas Hunt's expedition that brought the
plague, which destroyed the Pawtnxet. . The nearest other people were the
Wampanoag. In modern times they are often simply known as the Indians who met
the Pilgrim invasion, their lands stretched from present day Narragansett Bay to
Cape Cod. Like most other Tribal peoples in the area, the Wampanoag were farmers
and hunters.

Wampanoag is the collective name of the indigenous
people of southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The name has been
variously translated as "Eastern People", "People of the Dawn", or more
currently "People of the First Light". (Note 1)

The Pilgrims (who did not even call themselves
pilgrims) did not come here seeking religious freedom; they already had that in
Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture. One of the very first
things they did when they arrived on Cape Cod -- before they even made it to
Plymouth -- was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill and steal as much of the
Indians' winter provisions as they were able to carry. (Suppressed 1970 Speech
of Wamsutta (Frank B.) James, Wampanoag.)

To the native people who had observed these actions,
it was a serious desecration and insult to their dead. The angry Wampanoags
attacked with a small group, but were frightened off with gunfire. When the
Pilgrims had settled in and were working in the fields, they saw a group of
Native people approaching. Running away to get their guns, the Pilgrims left
their tools behind and the Native people took them. Not long after, in February
of 1621, Samoset, a leader of the Wabnaki peoples, walked into the village
saying "Welcome," in English. Samoset was from Maine, where he had met English
fishing boats and according to some accounts was taken prisoner to England,
finally managing to return to the Plymouth area, six months before the Pilgrims
arrived. Samoset told the Pilgrims about all the Native nations in the area and
about the Wampanoag people and their leader, Massasoit. He also told of the
experience of the Pawtuxet and Nauset people with Europeans. Samoset spoke about
a friend of his called Tisquantum (Squanto), who also spoke English.

Samoset left, promising the Pilgrims he would arrange
for a return of their tools.

Samoset returned with 60 Native people including
Massasoit and Tisquantum.

Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim, went to present them with
gifts and to make a speech saying that King James wished to make an alliance
with Massasoit. (This was not true.) Massasoit signed a treaty, which was
heavily slanted in favor of the Pilgrims. The treaty said that no Native person
would harm a European settler or, should they do so, they would be surrendered
to them for punishment. Wampanoags visiting the settlements were to go unarmed;
the Wampanoags and the non-Indians agreed to help one another in case of attack;
and Massasoit agreed to notify all the neighboring nations about the treaty.

The key figure in the treaty talks and in later encounters was Tisquantum. He
was Pawtuxet who had been kidnapped and taken to England in 1605. He managed to
return to New England, only to be captured by Captain Hunt and sold into slavery
in Spain. He escaped and returning to this continent, on board ship he met
Samoset. Tisquantum found that all of his people died of the plague, so he
stayed with the Wampanoags, some of whom had survived the disease. Tiquantum
remained with the Pilgrims for the rest of his life and was in large part
responsible for their survival.

The Pilgrims were not farmers nor woodsmen. They were
city people and mainly artisans. Tisquantum taught them when and how to plant
and fertilize corn and other crops. He taught them where the best fish were and
how to catch them in traps, and many other survival skills.

Governor Bradford called Tisquantum "a special
instrument sent of God" The Native nations along the eastern seaboard practiced
tribal spirituality, hospitality, and generosity.

Ironically, the first official "Day of Thanksgiving"
was proclaimed in 1637 by Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop. He did so to
celebrate the safe return of English colony men from Mystic, Connecticut. They
massacred 600 Pequots that had laid down their weapons and accepted
Christianity. They were rewarded with a vicious and cowardly slaughter by their
new "brothers in Christ (Note 2)

Massasoit, who had done so much to help the Pilgrims,
had a son named Metacomet. As time went on and more Europeans arrived and took
more land, Metacomet or Prince Phillip as he came to known and other tribal
people began to take notice of self-serving ethics of the Pilgrims. After
Metacoms father, Massasoit, died in 1662, Metacom was crowned King Phillip of
the Pokanoket by the Europeans.

King Phillip formed an alliance to remove the European
settlers from their homeland. In 1675, after a series of arrogant actions by the
colonists, King Phillip led his Indian confederacy into a war meant to save the
tribes from extinction. Metacom adopted a policy of increasing but subtle
resistance towards the English.

Rumors began to fly among the English that "Philip"
agreed to help the English enemies the French in 1667. A band of armed Native
men were discovered by colonial rangers in 1671, which led to a demand that the
guns be surrendered. After further angry confrontations, Metacom was forced to
sign a new treaty which unacceptably demanded he fully subject his people to the
English government. The old decayed dream of the peaceful coexistence between
two equal and sovereign peoples had ended with the rejection of the Treaty of
1621.

Although nothing happened for four more years, war
broke out in June, 1675. The winter of 1675-76 proved a harsh one for the
People, who resorted to raiding English farming communities for food and
supplies. Many of the Christian Native People, especially those of Natick,
Ponkapoag, and Mattakeeset were forced into internment camps on Deer Island in
Boston Harbor and Clark's Island in Plymouth Harbor, supposedly to prevent them
from aiding and abetting the enemy. (Note 3)

Text of Plaque on Cole's
Hill"Since 1970,
Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to commemorate
a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans
do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To
them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their
people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture.
Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the
struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and
spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which
Native Americans continue to experience."

The eventual use of Native soldiers proved to be the
turning point for the English. Their Native allies showed them effective methods
for locating enemies, traveling lightly through the country, and fighting in
guerrilla fashion. Small parties of Native and English rangers, supporting the
larger English armies, wore down Metacom�s allies� resistance and also caused
many bands to turn to the English side. One of the most famous of the mixed
Native and English ranger companies was led by Captain Benjamin Church of
Plymouth Colony.
Benjamin Church, who was an effective soldier, knew that area well. He had
been successful in convincing the Saconett Indians and others to leave the ranks
of Philip's supporters and ally themselves to him. Aided by these Indian
colleagues, Church began to hunt Philip down.

Bravely changing tactics, Philip returned to Mount
Hope, where he would meet his fate. In July 1676 Church captured Philip's wife
and son. Soon after, the despondent Philip shot one of his warriors. The man's
brother would lead Church to the sachem, and on 12 August 1676 Church and his
forces attacked Philip's encampment. Philip was shot and killed by an Indian
named Alderman, and the corpse was drawn, quartered, and beheaded. Philip's head
was placed upon a pole at Plymouth, where it served as a grisly reminder of the
war. (Note 4)

The current Wampanoag have not forgotten. Their
population consists of several groups, sometimes called "tribes", who base their
membership upon closely maintained kinship ties to the aboriginal communities.
Supposedly there are approximately 4,000 Wampanoag, some living in the
traditional homeland, some living where their jobs and lifestyles have taken
them. The two best known groups are those of Mashpee on Cape Cod and those of
Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard, which is the only Wampanoag group
recognized by the federal government. Other Wampanoag trace their ancestries
from Herring Pond (Bourne), Fresh Pond (Plymouth), Watuppa or Troy (Fall River),
Pokanoket (Bristol and Warren, R.I.), Chappaquiddick Island, Christiantown or
Takemmy (West Tisbury) and other places.

Notes and Bibliography:

Note 1. In this same time
frame of English exploration, but much better known, is Capt. John Smith. He is
the one who participated in the Powahatten area's bounty. Although he would have
much preferred to find gold. Capt. John Smith, has been immortalized for his
part in founding Virginia. In 1614 Smith explored part of the North American
coast-to which he gave the name New England. Disappointed in his search for
gold, he set his men to fishing for cod while he went exploring in the ship's
pinnacle, mapping the coastline from Maine to the cape that was named for the
fish.

Smith's map and description of New
England and his profits from cod fishing encouraged the Pilgrims to seek a
charter from the Crown (The English Crown had no authority to grant legally.) to
settle there. Indeed it was the cod that saved the first New Englanders. In
1640, only eleven years after Massachusetts Bay Company had been by the
Puritans, it exported three hundred thousand cod to Europe. Cod was soon also
being traded to the West Indies, in exchange for rum and molasses. In addition,
plowing in the cod waste greatly increased the agricultural productivity of the
stony New England soil. The cod proved a basis of prosperity for New England so
considerable that Adam Smith singled it out for praise in his Wealth of Nations.
To this day, a wooden sculpture of a cod adorns the Massachusetts Statehouse to
remind the legislators of the source of their state's greatness.

Note 2. William
Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Plantation, described the carnage:
"Those that scaped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces,
others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatche, and
very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time.
It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of
blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but
the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God,
who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their
hands, and gave them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie."
This is what Cotton Mather said, "It was supposed that no less than 600 souls
were brought down to Hell that day". At the same time he gives us an insight
into the society and character of the Puritans. ��yet all this could not
suppress the breaking out of sundry notorious sins.. Especially drunkenness and
uncleanness. Not only incontinency between persons unmarried, for which many
both men and women have been punished sharply enough, but some married persons
also. But that which is worse, even sodomy and buggery (things fearful to name)
have broke forth in this land oftener than once. I say it may justly be marveled
at and cause us to fear and tremble at the considration of our corrupt natures,
which are so hardly bridled, subdued and mortified.....But one reason may be
that the Devil may carry a greater spite against the churches of Christ and the
gospel here.

Note 3. In January, 1675 the body of a Christian Native named John
Sassamon was found in the frozen pond at Assawompset (Middleboro). An alleged
witness identified three Wampanoag men as the murderers of Sassamon. The three
were arrested and tried by the General Court at Plymouth because the crime took
place under English jurisdiction and the victim, being Christian, was considered
an English subject. Rumor circulated that Metacom had commissioned the execution
of Sassamon for revealing his plans.

In June, a colonist shot and mortally
wounded a Pokanoket who had been seen running out of his house. A revenge raid
followed in which several English were killed began the war. Plymouth,
Massachusetts Bay and the Connecticut Colonies mustered their allied forces, and
moved against Metacom. However, inept leadership allowed the Pokanoket to get
away and raid many colonial towns. The Pokanoket, joined somewhat reluctantly by
their Pocasset and Sakonnet relatives, retreated into the interior of
Massachusetts where they were joined by some of the Nipmuck and others.

The war spread to the Connecticut
valley and the Pokanoket went as far as the Hudson River to recruit allies
amongst the Mahican, Abenaki, and others. The colonies, insisting that the
Narragansett were acting in bad faith by harboring fugitives, prepared an army
of 1,000 men to attack that neutral nation. In December 1675 the colonials
attacked the unsuspecting Narragansett, burned their fort, and killed many of
the inhabitants, thus driving the Narragansetts into the war on the side of
Metacom.

Note 4. King
Philip's War slowly came to an end after the sachem's death. Some Indians were
executed for their part in the fighting. Others, including Philip's son, were
sold into slavery abroad, even to Africa. The Wampanoag tribe was destroyed.
Even Christian Indians who had backed the colonists suffered. Many colonists,
angered by the heavy death toll of King Philip's War, grew to hate all Indians,
irrespective of their religion.

Much confusion has arisen over what
name to use for Philip and the war. The sachem's earlier name, Metacom, is
preferred by some authors, but the sachem himself abandoned it. Indians commonly
renamed themselves, and in 1674 he was calling himself Wewasowannett.
Furthermore, the colonists were not ridiculing Philip when they referred to him
by a European royal title.
John Josselyn, who was sympathetic to the Indians, called the sachem "Prince
Phillip" in his An Account of Two Voyages to New-England (1674). In addition,
the term "King Philip's War" acknowledges Philip's great importance in the
history of colonial New England. Therefore both King Philip and King Philip's
War are acceptable usages.

Philip was illiterate, so there are
only a few letters. See Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 1st ser.,
2 (1793): 40, and 6 (1799): 94. Another letter is in Great Britain, Public
Record Office, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and the West
Indies (1880), vol. for 1661-1668, p. 380.

The Records of the Colony of New
Plymouth are essential. All contemporary accounts must be used cautiously, but
see Benjamin Church, Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War (1716);
Increase Mather, A Brief History of the Warr with the Indians in New-England
(1676); and William Hubbard, A Narrative of the Troubles with the Identity. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Indians in New-England (1677). John Easton's
narrative is in Charles H. Lincoln, ed., Narratives of the Indian Wars,
1675-1699 (1913). The only modern scholarly biography is in Philip Ranlet,
Enemies of the Bay Colony (1995).

His ancestry is given in Betty Groff
Schroeder, "The True Lineage of King Philip (Sachem Metacom)," New England
Historical and Genealogical Register, 144 (1990): 211-14. Alden T. Vaughan, New
England Frontier, 3rd ed. (1995), is the best work for the years before the war.
Douglas E. Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk (1958), is the most thorough military
history of the war itself. Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America (1975),
criticized Vaughan and Leach for being too favorable to the colonists.

Jennings, in turn, has been criticized
by Philip Ranlet, "Another Look at the Causes of King Philip's War," New England
Quarterly, 61 (1988): 79-100, and others for being too favorable to the Indians.
Jill Lepore. The Name of War: King Philip�s War and the Origins of American